I was having dinner with a friend in one of the ship’s restaurants. Suddenly there was a big crash, and all the glasses and plates went flying to the floor. Everybody panicked. None of the staff knew what to tell us – they were panicked, too. A voice on the loudspeaker said, ‘everything’s okay, it’s just an electrical problem.’

 

My friend and I looked at each other and I said, okay, let’s go out and find lifeboats. We didn’t see any staff on our way there. Near the lifeboats, we spotted some lifejackets; there was no staff distributing them, so we just grabbed them ourselves. There were very few lifejackets – not enough for all the passengers who had gathered.

 

Then, there was a second crash. The boat titled much more severely. At that point, staff members opened the door to the lifeboats. They didn’t tell us anything – there was no ‘women and children first’. It was every man for himself. One father pushed his young son onto the boat and told him, ‘when you get to shore, call grandma and grandpa.’ I’ll remember that my entire life. Thankfully, the father and son were later reunited.

 

Some people were asking the staff questions, but it seemed they did not speak English very well, and were too panicked to give any directions. They didn’t seem to know what to do, anyway.

 

 

I recognised one of the staff members, who was a cook – I asked him, ‘where’s the real staff? Where’s the captain?’ I saw other staff members leave on the lifeboats while passengers were still on board.

 

The lifeboat I got on was not full; I’m not sure if this was for security reasons or not. Again, no one told us anything. There was no organisation. Because the staff panicked, the passengers panicked. I tried to reassure the crying children, but was terrified myself, as I was afraid the ship might sink further and crash into our lifeboat.

 

When we arrived on land, the islanders were fantastic. They helped set us up in a hotel. The next day a boat took us to the mainland, where the police met with us. They were great, too. I would like to thank all these people – but not Costa Crociere [the company running the cruise]. No one from the company was there to help us, or even to say ‘we’re here for you.’

 

Since I’ve gotten home to Milan, a representative from the company has called to check up on how I’m doing. But that’s it. There’s no word on whether we’ll be compensated for the trauma we suffered. I don’t yet know whether I will pursue legal action against Costa Crociere. I am still consulting with my lawyer. But there’s no amount of money that will give me back my serenity. I feel ill when I’m in the shower, when I’m having lunch – every time I think about what happened. I can’t return to my normal life.

 

For me, Costa Crociere is responsible because they chose the ship’s captain, who made horrible decisions. I don’t know if the staff was sufficiently trained to deal with such a catastrophe, but in any case it’s no surprise that they panicked when they saw their captain was unable to handle the situation.”